Knowledge Base

How to create a new ad campaign

If you haven’t already, please read this article, covering what we do and don’t allow on our network. If you keep within these rules, your campaign will be approved much more quickly.

Creating a campaign using the Adcash self-service platform is a quick and simple process. After logging in to your Adcash account, there are buttons labelled Create a campaign in the top menu bar and the left sidebar.

Clicking them will reveal a sub-menu with three options: Desktop, Mobile Web and In-app. To choose the type of campaign you wish to launch, you just need to click on the appropriate option.

Clicking this will take you to the Add campaign page, where you can start entering all the information for your new campaign.

The campaign creation process consists of two main parts:

Campaign creation – Here, you enter the details for your campaign, such as name, URL, payment model (CPM, CPC or CPV) and budget. You can also setup advanced targeting options and choose your desired formats.

Creatives upload – The next stage is to upload your creatives.

Let’s break each of these steps down and go into a little more detail…

Campaign creation

The first thing to do when you’re creating a campaign is to give it a name. Something relevant and easy to refer back to (especially if you’re thinking of A/B testing your campaigns). Next is to enter the Product URL. This is the page that a user will be directed to when they click on your ad. If you choose the site-under ad format, this will be the page displayed in the new browser tab / window.

Remember: The URL provided must be for an actual, fully working site which complies with our campaign policy. Read more about our campaign requirements here.

Campaign status after creation

By default, your campaign will be set to start as soon as it has been validated, however you can choose to keep it paused. If you select the Paused option, you will need to manually start your campaign from the Campaigns list page, by clicking Run from the actions dropdown menu. It will then be sent for validation before being launched.

Format frequency capping (per IP)

Frequency capping allows you to specify a limit for the number of times a single user is served your ad. The default setting is 3 impressions per user in a 24 hour period. You can either remove the capping altogether, by selecting No capping or specify custom options. Frequency capping is a good way of preventing oversaturation or “banner burnout”.

Schedule

Your campaign will be set run indefinitely by default, limited only by the campaign budget settings and total Wallet balance. If, however, you want it to only run for a specific date range, you can set that here. Just click Date range to reveal the scheduling calendar and enter your desired dates in there.

Weekly distribution

This feature allows you set specific times and days of the week for your campaign to run. By default, your campaign will be set to run 24/7. By clicking Custom the Weekly distribution options will be revealed allowing you to enter time ranges and select specific days. If you want to add another range, simply click the + icon.

Formats selection

Choosing the right format when creating a campaign is one of the most important parts of the creation process. The formats selection options will change depending on the type of campaign you chose at the start of the creation process. To read our format list in full, click here. If you want to run a pop-under campaign on desktop or mobile web, please select the Exclusive format option, then Site-under (Pop-under).

Targeting options

Depending on the type of campaign that you select, you will have different primary targeting options available:

Campaign type

Targeting

Web

Site categories

Mobile web

Site categories

In-app

App categories

In-stream video (Web & Mobile)

Site categories

In-stream video (In-app)

App categories

User Interest Campaign (Web, Mobile & In-App)

User interests

Different campaign types and their corresponding primary targeting option

The other primary targeting option available is Location targeting.

When it comes to targeting, we advise that you keep things as broad as possible when you first launch your campaign and then narrow it down. By keeping it broad at first, then adding in targeting options you give your campaign the best chance of getting the most impressions. It also gives you an opportunity to see what the best targeting options for your campaign might be.

Site categories

The categories selection allows you to set the categories or themes of the sites where your ad will be displayed. By selecting Display only, your ad will only be displayed on sites that match the categories you have selected. Conversely, selecting Don’t display will ensure that your ad is not displayed on those types of sites. By default, your ad will be displayed on sites of all categories.

User interests

If you selected User Interest Campaign, you will be primarily targeting people based on their interests. Under the heading Subject of user interest you will see a search field, as well as a list of available user interests that you can target. If you select an option, it will appear in the box on the right hand side.

By selecting one or more interests, you will essentially be “whitelisting” them (meaning your campaign will only be displayed to people matching the selected interests).

Locations

The location targeting options allow you to specify where in the world your campaigns will be displayed. By default, your ad will be shown globally with no restrictions. If you want to target specific regions you can select Custom. You will then see two blue buttons: one labeled Country, the other Region. The Country option is selected by default so you will see a list of every country where you can choose to have your ad displayed (basically, any country in the world). The Region option gives you a list of the regions, which can either be selected themselves (thus displaying your ad in every country in that region) or you can click on the region label to reveal the countries within it. We also have “special” location targeting options which can be found either by selecting Other or beneath the country / region list. To read more about these special targeting options, click here.

Advanced targeting

These advanced targeting options are hidden by default. To make them available, all you need to do is click on Advanced targeting. This will expand the targeting options menu, revealing all of the options.

Operating Systems

The operating system targeting option allows you to choose the OS(s) where your ad campaign is / isn’t displayed on. Selecting Display only will mean your ad is only displayed on the selected operating systems and vice-versa with Don’t display – your campaign will not be displayed on the selected operating systems.

Browsers

Use the Browsers option to target your campaign by web browser. Selecting Display only will ensure that your ad is only displayed in the selected browsers. The Don’t display option means that your campaigns will be excluded from the selected browsers. By default, your ad will be served to all browser types.

Zones Blacklists and Whitelists

The Zones blacklists / whitelists option allows you to set up lists of places where you want your campaigns to be displayed. To read about the zones blacklists / whitelists options in more detail, please read this article.

Browser Languages

You can target your campaigns at particular browser languages. To choose the languages you want, simply click in the box and start typing. The system will perform a real-time search of the database of browser languages and narrow down the list as you type. By default, all browser languages will be targeted.

Carriers

Carrier targeting allows you to display or exclude your campaign for users of a particular carrier or ISP. To read about carrier targeting in some more detail, we’ve put together this article to help you. By default, your campaign will be displayed to users of all mobile carriers and ISPs.

Connection type targeting

Connection type targeting allows you to display or exclude your campaign for users of a particular connection type. By default, your campaign will be displayed to users of all connection types. To learn more about connection type targeting, click here.

Payout and Budget

The Adcash advertiser platform gives you 3 campaign bid types: CPC, CPM and CPV. Select the option you want for your campaign to continue. If you want some more info on which one to choose, read our blog article on the topic. CPV (or cost per view) is specifically for our In-stream video ads. With CPV you pay every time your in-stream video ad is viewed. For more information on our payment models, you can check out this page on adcash.com.

Min. and Max. Bid: The system will tell you what the minimum and maximum bids are for your campaign. It will calculate this figure based on the format and location options you have selected.

Suggested best CPM / CPC bid: A figure will appear in purple to highlight the recommended bid for your campaign. This figure is generated dynamically based on the format and location targeting options you have selected. By bidding at or above this value your campaign is more likely to perform better.

Uploading creatives

If you’ve selected any format other than site-under (pop-under) or in-stream, you will need to add creatives to your campaign. When uploading creatives, you need to make sure that they match the dimensions you chose during the formats selection process. Your creatives must be less than 100KB and comply with the Adcash quality agreement. The following file formats are supported:

PNGGIFJPG

Click Create a campaign and that’s it! Your campaign will then be processed by our validation system and, once approved will start running.

Site-under (pop-under)

In the case of the site-under ad format, the product URL provided at the start of the campaign creation process will be used. So make sure that’s the exact page that you want to appear to your audience.

In-stream Video

There are two options for adding In-Stream creatives.

Option one is to add creative over URL by simply pasting a link into the platform.

List of variable macros you can use for sending additional traffic information when using the URL method:

Option two allows “tag upload”. All creatives will be validated. To ensure this process goes smoothly, please ensure that your creatives are compliant with our policies. You should also whitelist Estonia as a country and adcash.com and adca.sh domains. This will allow us to validate creatives.

Remember: If you selected the Paused option for your campaign status, you will need to manually launch it from the Campaign list screen.

If you’re looking for some tips on how to get the most from the Adcash self-service platform, click here!